John Updike, RIP

rollhead · January-27th-2009, 01:55 PM

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 -- 1:30 PM ET
-----

The Author John Updike Has Died at 76

John Updike, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, has died at 76, according to his publisher.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

Brian Olewnick · January-27th-2009, 02:02 PM

Ah, crap.

I came to him late but love much of his work. The Rabbit series is as clear, scary and penetrating portrait of middle class US life from the 50s to 90s that I'm aware of. Also love S., Toward the End of Time and In the Beauty of the Lilies.

Thanks, Mr. Updike.

GoodSpeak · January-27th-2009, 02:07 PM

I just read about it.

John Updike was a favorite poet of mine. In fact, I still use two of his poems in my class: The Ex-Basketball Player and Lament for Cocoa.

RIP, Mr. Updike.

Gary Sisco · January-27th-2009, 02:09 PM

Rabbit undux.

jazzy mary · January-27th-2009, 02:14 PM

I'm very sad about this. I'm a bit surprised too. I just saw him a couple of months ago at a talk at The Times Center. He seemed healthy. He was really funny and interesting. Afterwards he signed my copy of "The Widows of Eastwick". I told him that my daughter is a student at his parents' alma mater--Ursinus College. Small world department. We talked about that for a moment.

I love Updike's writing. I read the first Rabbit book and then couldn't wait to read all the others, which I did in quick succession. They were so good. I loved his essays, book reviews and stories for the New Yorker too.

Gentle Giant · January-27th-2009, 02:31 PM

Hard-working guy who never lost his sense of humor. RIP.

steve(thelil) · January-27th-2009, 02:38 PM

I think I've seen him on the street a couple of times on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

My 10th grade English teacher thought he was GOD. The teacher was one of those loud, dramatic charismatic, intellectual, slightly effeminate types of English teachers. [He would refer to himself in the 3rd person, as "Bobby Bubs" (pronounced like books with a second b instead of a k)]

We had a bunch of young, rebellious, intellectual hippie chicks in the class who liked to give him a hard time. One of them (also named Bobbie) announced one day that Updike's daughter was her friend from summer camp, and that she had written a letter to Updike complaining about the teacher's interpretation of Updike and the teacher's attitude towards differing viewpoints. According to Bobbie, Updike wrote a nice letter back in which, among other things, he agreed with her. He also said something like, "It's too bad you got one of those types of English teacher.

Bobby Bubs responded that she just had to share Updike's letter with the class; that it was a rare, historical gem, etc., and she refused. He just couldn't leave it alone, and the class was, from that point on, one long, over-the-top dramatic monologue.

I think student Bobbie ultimately relented, and that Bobby Bubs claimed that the letter showed that Bobbie had misstated his positions in her letter to Updike, but it's not nearly as memorable as Bobby Bubs' performance when he was initially denied access to the invaluable Updike letter.

Surfer · January-27th-2009, 02:46 PM

Read "A&P".

stonemonkts · January-27th-2009, 02:49 PM

He has been my favorite contemporary author ever since I read the first page of Rabbit, Run. Despite his many detractors, and they have been legion, in my mind he captured the thousands of subtle inner observations we all have, or have had at one time or other, better than anyone else. He was also a true master of his craft. I'm saddened because this was unexpected, and as a fan I was looking forward to at least a few more books from him.

His short stories are wonderful too.

His writing spoke to me. What more can you ask out of a book.

He had that twinkle in his eye when I last saw him on Charlie Rose. Couldn't have been more than two months ago.

This saddens me.

steve(thelil) · January-27th-2009, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Surfer

Read "A&P".

I think this was the work that caused the controversy in my high school class.

Rob C · January-27th-2009, 02:57 PM

I haven't read him in quite a while, but Updike's work meant a lot to me when I was younger. Reading Rabbit Is Rich in a college English class permanently altered my taste in books. I will probably have to drag out my doorstop Everyman's Library edition of the Rabbit Tetralogy soon.

I also highly recommend Nicholson Baker's U & I, a nonfiction meditation on Baker's obsession with Updike, and on how books affect us.

clinthopson · January-27th-2009, 03:16 PM

John Updike is probably my favorite American author of the last half-century. I can't think of any author who portrayed the upper middle class any better.

One of the motivations I've had in subscribing to the New Yorker has been his short stories and criticism.

I suppose his writing was too accessible for whoever those judges are with the Nobel prize, but I've always felt he deserved the award just as much as some obscure Himalayan writer.

jazzy mary · January-27th-2009, 03:18 PM

Great story, Steve(tl)!

Lenny D.Guitarist · January-27th-2009, 03:21 PM

Dear God no. My opinion...Mr. Updike's the best American author of the past fifty years. I met him once on the streets of NYC and told him how much I admired his legendary literary skills. He was gracious. Rest in peace, sir. The world has lost a giant.

rollhead · January-27th-2009, 03:22 PM

I could never get into him, perhaps because he was so obsessed with the "subtle inner observations" that the petty (sic) bourgeoisie are so obsessed with.

But it doesn't surprise me that someone who spends his free time standing in front of a mirror at the health club admiring himself would appreciate the subtle inner observations of Long Island residents.

That said, I would say Updike was "America's most towering chronicler of suburban adultery." And you can quote me on that.

As for me, I will stick with Russell Banks' murderous plumbers. Now those guys, I can relate to.

jazzy mary · January-27th-2009, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lenny D.Guitarist

Dear God no. My opinion...Mr. Updike's the best American author of the past fifty years. I met him once on the streets of NYC and told him how much I admired his legendary literary skills. He was gracious. Rest in peace, sir. The world has lost a giant.

I'm pretty much up there with you Lenny. For me, Bellow edges Updike out just a bit. For me, Styron is way up there too. Now, I could never really get into Philip Roth. I didn't care for "Portnoy's Complaint" at all. I like "Goodbye, Columbus" though. I need to give Roth another chance--but where to begin now, he's written so much. I'm almost afraid to go down that road, I have so many books already piled up to read---including a few by Updike.

stonemonkts · January-27th-2009, 04:17 PM

Rollhead, next time please choose a different thread to express in your inimitable style how much you can't stand my existence.

Monte Smith · January-27th-2009, 04:21 PM

Oh bummer. The consolation is I look forward to reading his final novel when it is published in ten years' time after fifty other posthumous works are put out there. I guess I've been wanting to read Updike's final novel for forever. Not a big fan, though I haven't been zealous about trying to figure out the attraction. I like "A&P" very much. I've read his short stories. The novels, hmm. Haven't tried Rabbit. I don't know. I don't like New England. I don't know Pennsylvania. I don't seek to contemplate married people having affairs nor did that excite when I was reading what Updike novels I did read (in high school). I don't like the American lettrists, frankly. They all leave me cold. Bellow? No thanks. But it seems weird that Updike is dead. Updike cannot die, it's against the natural order. His fame and his works, on the other hand....

Brian Olewnick · January-27th-2009, 04:30 PM

I think there might be an interesting divide between those who enjoy Updike, Bellow, Carver, etc. and those who don't. There is, as Monte alludes to an American-ness, and one of the upper middle class, that will turn some off. It did me a long time; wasn't until the early 90s, I think, that I really began reading them. There's also the quality of being both critical and appreciative that might rub those on either side the wrong way. Updike had a good handle on complexity...the Rabbits are full of no easy answers.

btw, Monte, Storer and Sergio (and a couple of other JCers I can't identify) appeared in a dream of mine last night, showing up in my apartment one morning with no prior announcement. Sca-ry.

jesus marion joseph · January-27th-2009, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Olewnick

btw, Monte, Storer and Sergio (and a couple of other JCers I can't identify) appeared in a dream of mine last night, showing up in my apartment one morning with no prior announcement. Sca-ry.

I think I was one of those unidentified JCers.

rollhead · January-27th-2009, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stonemonkts

Rollhead, next time please choose a different thread to express in your inimitable style how much you can't stand my existence.

Yea, but but the fun is all in you reading it!

rollhead · January-27th-2009, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Olewnick

I think there might be an interesting divide between those who enjoy Updike, Bellow, Carver, etc. and those who don't. .

Call me among those who don't. I am all about Russell Banks, Tim O'Brien, Robert Stone, all those writers who write about real people and the consequential events they have to deal with.

Among those three you mentioned, I am an admirer of Carver, for stylistic reasons.

All and all, I feel out of my depth when dealing with the travails of desperate, upper class housewives.

At least with Phillip Roth there was enough material in there for a kid to jerk off to, or at least I've been told.

Pete C · January-27th-2009, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rollhead

That said, I would say Updike was "America's most towering chronicler of suburban adultery."

But Peter DeVries was the funniest.

Pete C · January-27th-2009, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Olewnick

I think there might be an interesting divide between those who enjoy Updike, Bellow, Carver, etc. and those who don't.

Indifferent to Updike, find Bellow one of the most overrated of all writers, with a tin ear to boot, underwhelmed by Carver.

Brian Olewnick · January-27th-2009, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rollhead

All and all, I feel out of my depth when dealing with the travails of desperate, upper class housewives.

Try the Rabbit series; all white, middle class in drab PA.

Jon Abbey · January-27th-2009, 08:22 PM

not a fan of the little Updike and Bellow I've tried, I do like Carver and would never group those three together.

anyway, here's something I can get behind:

"The great thing about the dead, they make space."-John Updike

Monte Smith · January-27th-2009, 08:46 PM

I like the Carver I have read. Brian, you and I were reading Ravelstein at the same time a few years ago and that about did Bellow in for me (read Augie March in high school but could not possibly have understood it). Updike I don't condemn utterly; I've read some things that I have liked mildly. He seems like an enthusiasm for very mild people. But Olewnick likes him and so I don't discount him out of hand, I hope to have my Rabbit phase eventually.

Throw Cheever on the suburban pile. He could write a great short story and he put out two fine (Wapshot) novels and some others that are among the shittiest novels you could ever read. Falconer! Bullet Park, ugh!

Jon Abbey · January-27th-2009, 09:06 PM

Revolutionary Road is the best book along those lines I've ever read, wack Hollywood adaptation aside. also, David Gates, a more recent author, gets slept on some, but I'm a big fan (write another novel, dude!).

walto · January-27th-2009, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon Abbey

not a fan of the little Updike and Bellow I've tried, I do like Carver and would never group those three together.

That's about where I am. But I admire Updike as a reviewer. And I understand he was an extremely nice man.

Brian Olewnick · January-27th-2009, 09:52 PM

For me, they all get deeply at what stone referred to, the noticing of small, beautiful things. The noticing, that is, even more than the things.

Monte, yes, I thought Ravelstein awful. Herzog rules, though.